3 Best APIs for Business in Nigeria

SPay Business Solutions Ltd is a Nigerian payment technology company offering a streamlined payment gateway designed specifically for Nigerian businesses, SMEs, freelancers, and service providers who need to accept online payments without complex infrastructure. Operating under the tagline "Payment Simplified!", SPay focuses on making payment collection accessible to businesses of all sizes — from solo freelancers generating payment links to online stores integrating a full checkout API. **What SPay Does** SPay provides a payment processing platform with four core capabilities: online payment acceptance, virtual account creation, payment link generation, and subscription/recurring billing management. These services are accessible via a RESTful API documented through readme.io, as well as via the SPay merchant dashboard for non-technical users who need payment links without coding. **Payment Acceptance API** SPay's payment API allows merchants to initiate payment sessions, redirect customers to a hosted payment page or embed a checkout widget, and receive payment confirmation via webhooks. The API handles both card payments and bank transfer acceptance, giving merchants multiple collection channels in a single integration. Standard REST API conventions are followed, with responses in JSON format and test payment tools provided for developer integration testing. **Virtual Accounts via First Bank of Nigeria** One of SPay's distinguishing features is its integration with First Bank of Nigeria for virtual account issuance. Merchants can programmatically create unique Nigerian bank account numbers (virtual accounts) that are tied to a specific customer or transaction. When a customer makes a bank transfer to the virtual account, SPay detects the payment in real time and notifies the merchant via webhook — enabling seamless bank transfer payment collection without manual reconciliation. This is particularly valuable for Nigerian consumers who prefer bank transfers over card payments. **Payment Links** SPay allows merchants to generate shareable payment links from the dashboard or via API — links that customers can open in a browser to complete a payment. This makes SPay accessible to businesses without a website, allowing freelancers, event organizers, and service businesses to collect payments via WhatsApp, email, or social media with zero code required. **Subscription & Recurring Billing** For SaaS products, membership platforms, schools, and subscription boxes, SPay offers a recurring billing module that handles automated charge schedules on weekly, monthly, or annual cycles. Merchants set up subscription plans, customers authorize the recurring payment, and SPay manages the billing cycle, retry logic for failed payments, and subscription lifecycle events. **Authentication** SPay uses API key-based authentication. Merchants receive API credentials (public key and secret key) after completing the merchant onboarding and KYC process on the SPay dashboard. API keys are passed in request headers for all API calls. Test mode credentials are provided separately and can be used to test integrations without processing real transactions. **Merchant Onboarding & KYC** To go live on SPay, merchants must complete a KYC process that includes providing business registration details (CAC certificate), bank account information for settlement, and identity verification for directors. This is standard practice for all Nigerian payment gateways operating under CBN regulatory requirements. Developers and businesses can test the API with test credentials before completing KYC — making it easy to build and validate integrations before going live. **Sandbox / Test Environment** SPay provides test payment capabilities for developers to simulate transactions and validate integrations without real money movement. The documentation on readme.io includes response codes and test scenarios. **Pricing** SPay uses a commission-based pricing model — merchants pay a percentage of each transaction processed. Specific fee percentages are not publicly listed on the website; merchants receive a pricing schedule upon completing merchant onboarding. No publicly advertised monthly subscription fee has been found. **Nigeria Context & Regulatory Standing** SPay is a Nigeria-focused payment company serving Nigerian merchants under CBN payment regulations. Banking partner arrangements, including the First Bank virtual account integration, operate within Nigeria's licensed payment infrastructure. SPay is suitable for Nigerian businesses that want a simpler, more focused payment solution compared to the complexity of larger platforms like Paystack or Flutterwave — particularly for businesses that primarily need virtual accounts and payment links rather than a full payments ecosystem. **Challenges for Nigerian Developers** SPay is a smaller gateway with fewer integrations and ecosystem tools compared to market leaders like Paystack or Flutterwave. The public documentation, while functional, is not as comprehensive or community-supported as larger platforms. Bulk payout/transfer capabilities, USSD payments, and POS integration are not available in the current product offering. International card acceptance (non-NGN) is also not documented as a supported feature. **Frequently Asked Questions** Q: Does SPay support USSD payments? A: No. SPay currently supports card payments and bank transfers via virtual accounts — not USSD. Q: Can I use SPay without a registered business (CAC)? A: A CAC-registered business is required for production access. Developers can test with sandbox credentials before completing KYC. Q: How are virtual accounts created through SPay? A: Virtual accounts are issued in partnership with First Bank of Nigeria via the SPay API — each account receives a unique Nigerian bank account number that customers can transfer to. Q: Does SPay support international payments? A: SPay is primarily focused on NGN payments for Nigerian customers. International card acceptance is not a documented feature. Q: Is there a recurring billing feature? A: Yes — SPay includes a subscription management module for automated recurring billing on daily, weekly, monthly, or annual schedules.

CompanyData.com is a global business information API that provides developers and enterprise platforms with programmatic access to company registration records, director information, financial filings, and corporate intelligence from business registries across multiple countries and regions. The service aggregates official company data from government business registries and authoritative commercial sources into a unified API interface, enabling automated corporate due diligence, vendor verification, and B2B data enrichment workflows. The core data offering covers company registration details including legal company name, registration number, registered address, incorporation date, company type, current active or inactive status, and the registered jurisdiction. For Nigerian businesses conducting supplier onboarding, vendor management, or partnership agreements, the ability to verify that a counterparty is a legitimately registered company with accurate legal name and registration number is a fundamental compliance and risk management requirement. Director and officer data reveals who is legally responsible for a company, including director names, positions, appointment dates, and where available, other companies where the same individuals hold directorships. This information is critical for Know Your Business (KYB) compliance programs at Nigerian financial institutions, fintech companies, and any regulated entity required to understand the beneficial ownership and control structure of their corporate clients before establishing business relationships. Financial filing access provides balance sheet data, profit and loss figures, and other financial statements where companies are required to file publicly with government authorities. For companies registered in jurisdictions with mandatory financial reporting to company registrars, this enables creditors, investors, and counterparties to assess financial health without requiring direct disclosure from the company. Nigerian organizations extending trade credit to international buyers can use this data as part of credit assessment. The API supports B2B CRM enrichment, automatically populating or updating company records with the latest registered information. Nigerian sales and marketing teams using CRM platforms can keep their company database accurate and current without manually researching each account. The API can verify and append official registration details, update addresses, and flag companies that have become inactive or dissolved. Supply chain due diligence has become increasingly important for Nigerian companies operating in regulated industries or seeking international trading relationships. Procurement teams can use CompanyData.com to verify that suppliers are legitimate registered entities before placing orders, reducing the risk of fraud involving fictitious companies. International export controls and sanctions screening workflows can be enriched with official company registration data to ensure completeness of counterparty profiles. Coverage for African markets including Nigeria has been expanding as the API aggregates from Corporate Affairs Commission records and other African business registry sources. Nigerian company data availability varies by data access agreements and registry digitization status, but the trend across the continent is toward greater digital accessibility of company registration information. The API returns structured JSON data through RESTful endpoints with filtering by company name, registration number, and jurisdiction. For Nigerian developers building compliance, procurement, or business intelligence platforms, CompanyData.com reduces the engineering burden of integrating with multiple individual country registries into a single API dependency. The paid subscription model reflects the commercial value of the data aggregation and normalization service — access to authoritative company data from multiple jurisdictions through a consistent interface saves significant development and maintenance effort for organizations that would otherwise need to build and maintain these registry connections independently.